Becoming Insane
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: Madness comes in many shapes and forms. Dementia. Hallucinations. Insomnia. Who was to say that this then, was simply not another form of the madness? Freed from his cage after an eon of slumber, he finally meets one as mad as he. NarutoxChrona! Fluff!


**A/N: AAAAAAAAAGH! So much pain! Ridiculous pain! Even with the painkillers its all I can do to write nowadays. Kinda funny, considering the slew of UPDATES I've been pumping out. But I digress! Despite my pain, despite my suffering, I proudly present to thee , for your viewing pleasure, yet another NarutoxSoul Eater crossover! This one is not a harem! The pairing is NarutoxCrona with a dash of NarutoxEruka and side of NarutoxMedusa for those of you who are so inclined. Now, sit back, relax...**

**...AND ENJOY THE MADNESS! **

_I am madness; therefore I am Kishin._

_~Namikaze Naruto._

**Madness**

Eruka was sick and tired of it. Medusa always stepped on her and humiliated her. She wished she could put a bomb down Medusa's throat and blow her up. She hated her _sooooo_ much. The worst part of it is if she refuses Medusa's order's she's going to die. She wanted revenge. Revenge that wouldn't get her killed. A revenge that _wouldn't _involve snake after snaking detonating within her stomach and disembowling her.

A revenge that would have to wait; wait, until she completed her mission.

She padded through the cell block in frog form, careful to sneak past the slumbering guardsman. The fellow was fast asleep, having drank the drugged drink of a potion she'd poured into his glass. She had to be careful. So very careful. One wrong move would lead to her discovery. Discovery meant death. Eruka knew she had to move swifly. Softly and slippery. Stealthily and sneakily. And most importantly of all...

_Quietly._

Warily, she approached the thirteenth cell.

She could see the man within; large, muscular, his eyes bound by a thin strap of cloth. His arms are bound and his legs tied, hopelessly shackled together. She knew she'd no chance of removing the shackles. She could only open the door, and pray that this musclebound man would not crush and kill her. She was only a frog, after all. Crushing and killing were what men did best and right now she was so very, _very small._

But she daren't resume human form. Not yet. To do so here amidst a coven of witches would mean almost doom. Because Eruka _was_ a witch. Doing things that a witch should not be doing, nor ever actually do. Releasing prisoners. Eruak was about to do just that and her body knew it; the key quivering between her lips and against her teeth. Would that she could spit it out without fear of it clattering across the floor; without fear of waking the guard.

"Who is it?" A voice asked from beyond the darkness of the cell. "Who's there?"

"I-I was asked by a certain someone to break you out of here." Eruka stammers, struggling around the key in her mouth. "I'm going to let you out now."

"Who do you take me for?" The man scoffed, all arrogance and annoyance. "Do you think I would accept the help of others?

Eruka didn't know how to deal with this. She'd never expected the prisoner to refuse her offer. But she daren't disobey Medusa. Disobedience meant death. And anything was better than death. Anything.

"Oi, frog."

Eruka froze, her eyes flying wide open. She'd heard a voice just now. Speaking to her. Talking to her. _Beckoning. _Gupling, she turned toward it with a small "gecko", scouring the darkness for the one who'd called out to her. She found him; sitting in the cell adjacent to the thirteenth prisoner. The blood turned ice in her veins.

He pinnioned her with but a gaze, one eye glowing a slitted, relentless red, the othera shy, bashful blue. It was bewitching. A mop of messy blond locks obscured the rest of his face, marring his facial features. Like the thirteenth prisoner he was garbed in black and white, his hands and legs shackled, but that was where the resemblance ended. Unlike the thirteenth prisoner he wasn't bulky, nor was he stocky. He was slim, and his very prescence radiated madness of the highest degree. Eruka felt herself losing out to her curiousity the longer she stared. There was something about him, something...maddening.

"Y-Yes?" Eruka croaked_-excuse the pun-_her words a faint cry in the dark. "What do you want?"

The silence was deafening. Eerie.

_Terrifying._

"Let me out, too." The blond man rasped at length. "Take me with you."

"I'm...I'm not supposed to-

"If you don't let me out I'll scream." The man threatened, his words deadly soft. "That'll wake the prisoners and they'll wake the guards, and soon you'll have all those witches coming down on your pretty little head...do you want that?" A dark chuckle. "Do you want to croak, here, in a place like this?" He pressed his face against the bars of his cell a moment longer, exposing whiskered cheeks and sharp, glistening fangs.

"Do you?" The words were soft; little more than a whisper.

_"Meep!"_

No way! No way was she going to allow herself to die in a place like this! Eruka wanted to live! She desperately wanted to live! Fine then! She had no choice! For her sake, for the sake of her life, she placed the key in the lock and gave it a swift turn. She then did the same to that of the mysterious thirteenth prisoner. She'd just have to escape with the both of them and pray Medusa was feeling merciful...

_**"FREEDOM!"**_

With a snarl the blond bolted upright and wrenched his wrists into the wall. The wooden shackles, worn and decayed from centuries of abuse, crumpled against unyielding stone; breaking before the unparalelled might of the man who'd once suffered their clammy embrace. Eruka wanted to weep. All that silence, all that stealth, wasted! And for what? Nothing! Even as she looked on, the man ripped the chain and ball from his feet, slinging toward the now stirring guardsmen. Even as knot after knot of awful dread twisted inside her stomach, she realized the guard's fate.

An overpowering sensation of pressure bore down upon her like an invisible hand. She sensed something enormous nearby, silent in the dark, like a giant passing within arms reach. A gravid deadly prescence too huge to grant her notice. She glanced to the blond and saw him grin, as her fingertips pressed against his temples. A droplet of blood fell from her nose as he mumbled an incantation; as he raised his hand toward the stirring guard.

_"Burn."_ The blond commanded, and the ball and chain streaked toward the guard in a ball of searing flame.

The man tried to stand upright, tried to rise, tried to raise his arms...and was reduced to a gory smear across the concrete. Eruka yelped, not from horror, but surprise as the blood slapped across her cheek. She'd long since become accustomed to the grisly reality of magical warfare; the ability to kill your enemy in all sorts of imaginative ways. It still galled her that this man had goaded and beguiled his way into being released.

"Look what you did!" She exclaimed aghast, gawping at the dismembered bodies. "Now they know I'm here!"

"They'd have figured it out sooner or later, wouldn't they?"

The blond prisoner stepped out of the remains of his once impervious cell with a laugh, nine tails of cruel crimson billowing behind him. _Tails._ He had tails! How? How could it be possible? Against her better judgement, Eruka directed her gaze upward, and saw, in place of his human ears, one could easily see the ears of a yoko, of a fox, jutting out amongst greasy, matted locks.

The man raked a hand through his hair, the blond mess perfecting itself at the touch of his fingertips. Eruka was suddenly struck by just how handsome this man was. Despite his earlier threat and violent murder, he was rather dashing. Oh, yes. Very handsome. Very handsome indeed.

"Oi, are you coming or not?" This directed to the as of yet motionless thirteenth prisoner. "Looks like we're making our escape."

"Guess so." The blindfolded man shuffled out of his cell, arms and legs still bound. Not for long. With a swing of an arm the shackles crumpled around him. Strangely enough, however, he kept the ball and chain.

"So, what now?"

The blond prisoner grinned then, and it was the most marvelous and terrifying thing Eruka's ever seen.

"I believe our _accomplice_ should lead the way."

* * *

_(Several hours later)_

"Arigatou!" The blindfolded man enthused for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Don't mention it!" Eruka huffed, leading them away from the castle. "I was just doing as I was told!" She'd yet to abandon frog form, for fear of alerting their pursuers to her prescence. Making it extremely difficult for her to keep pace with the two men. Still, she did her best, all the while doing her best to keep thoughts of a certain blond from her head.

She wasn't expecting said blond to reach down, scoop her up, and deposit her onto his shoulder.

_"Gecko!"_

She cried as his fingers dug into her flesh. He stank of blood, reeking of those he'd killed and the souls he'd devoured during their escape. Eruka still shuddered at the memory of it, but it wasn't enough to daunt her. She was still tasked with leading them to Medusa, and with a coven of witches looming at their backs, they couldn't yet afford to lower their guard. Still, the sudden gesture of gentleness made her blanch at the dual sides of the blonde's personality. Only hours before, he'd been violent and demanding. Now he was gentle, even kind, by her standards.

"Arigatou." The blond grunted, managing to make mismatching eyes look kindly, just for a moment. "I know I threatened you back there, but I'd still be stuck in that cell were it not for you. So I'll say it again. Thank you."

Eruka blushed.

"I...was just following orders."

The blond grinned; and this time there was a dark amusement to be seen in his smile. Not quite madness, but something remarkably close to it, or so Eruka surmised. He was close. Dangerously so. Who was to say that one more soul wouldn't push him over the edge and cause him to forfeit his humanity? Who was to say this smiling face would not one day crumple into maddened merriment?

"Well, since it's like that, I guess I'll hang with you guys for awhile."

Who was to say that she, Eruka Frog, wouldn't be his first victim?

* * *

_(Several hours later)_

Medusa smiled.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you." she turned, upon sensing the prescence of Eruka and another. _And yet another? _A pause. "And? Who is this?" Her gaze turned toward the second, unamed prisoner. The one she hadn't asked for. Medusa was just about to rebuke Eruka for her foolish actions when one of the men brought his gaze upon her. It was a foolish endeavor, but it took Eruka off her hit list, for the moment.

Careful to maintain her distance, she turned her golden gaze upon the blond.

"Eruka, who is this?"

The blond set her down and allowed her to resume human shape. Before she could speak however, he beat her to the punch.

"Ah," A soft, silken purr. "So you're the witch that masterminded all this, ya know?"

"Ya...know?" For a moment, Medusa was baffled. Who was this strange man that stood before her, and why had Eruka freed him in addition to their prisoner with the Demonic Eye? And why did he tack that obnoxious "ya know?" onto the end of his sentence?

"I brought you the Magic Eye man, like I said I would! Now, take all of the snakes out of my body, like you promised!" Eruka demanded.

"All? You must be joking. It's one snake per errand, of course."

"Huh!" Eruka looked to be on the verge of tears. "How many more are there!"

"You don't have any right to know." Medusa remained the picture of calm. "If you'd like, I could bring them all out at once, ripping you up in the process." She might have said more, were it nor for the sudden spike of killer intent at the girl's back. Oh? Apparently one of the prisoners had grown rather...attached to his little saviour. Interesting. Might she be able to make use of this in future endeavors? She filed the matter away for later review.

_"Gecko!_ This is too much! You demon! You devil!" She watched as the blond placed a consoling hand on the girl's shoulder, albeit briefly. He jerked away when the girl tried to turn and look him in the eye, though the motion was not so slight to escape Medusa's notice.

"What should I call you?"

The blond grinned.

"I used to go by the name of Naruto, but that was a long time ago." He turned his gaze toward the sky, for the ever grinning moon. "Like Free said, those years of captivity all but took that away from me." A grimace of self castigation. "I no longer have any right to go by that surname; because I no longer remember that life." A slow and dangerous smile crept across his lips. "And I just thought of a better one. You may call me...**Kurama."**

Medusa maintained the smile, but inwardly the gears of her mind were already hard at work. She took in the ears. The nine tails that laying restlessly around him; coiled, as if to strike at the slightest provocation. And those eyes. Those eerie, wonderful, mismatching eyes. Whatever he had once been, whatever he was supposed to be, had died with his name during an eon of captivity. And he was close. She could feel the madness resonating from him like an invisible tremor. It sent a silent trill throughout her body. Urges she'd long since suppressed, urges that only surfaced while in the prescence of that pathchwork proffessor, suddenly threatened to consume Medusa Gorgon.

_Troublesome._

The entity standing before her was nearly a Kishin; in body, if not mind. Whether this being existed before or after Asura's time was unknown. Its motives for approaching her remained unknown. Its moves remained unknown. _Unknown._ There were too many unknowns, too many variables for her to factor this creature out of the equation. Still, she could respect the title he'd taken for himself.

Kurama was an appropriate name for the creature standing before her. Now, all that remained was to take advantage of them. The man that called himself Free could easily be controlled, given the right prodding and proper procedure...

"What do you say?" Free offered. "I'd like to repay you somehow."

"Oh no. That's all right. Don't worry about it."

"I wouldn't be content with that.

"Neither would I." Kurama piped up suddenly.

"Well then, I wonder if I could ask you to do one thing." Medusa began, smiling. "There's a certain weapon and meister I'd like you to crush...

"A weapon and meister?" Free immediately perked up at those term. "As in Shibusen?" He grinned. "The rules that Death forces down our throats are a pain. Yeah, alright. I'll eliminate them for you. Gladly!" Kurama wasn't as taken by the idea. The foxy blond seemed to consider it a moment longer, stroking his chin thoughtfully in abscence of the euphoria displayed by his partner.

"Shibusen, huh?" he mumbled again.

"Yes."

"So? You want the two of us to take down a single meister?" Naruto_-ahem-_Kurama didn't look too pleased by this assignment. "That doesn't sound like much of a challenge to me...

"Oh, but I have a different task for you, Naruto-san." Medusa shook her head. "One worthy of your unique...talents."

"And that would be?"

Medusa was all smiles.

"I'd like you to introduce you to my daughter."

There was a silence.

Then:

_"Eh?"_

**A/N: Let the NarutoxCrona shipping begineth again! I always wondered, just what kind of people or creatures did the witches keep captive? And who was to say our dear Free was the only Immortal to ever exist? This obviously takes place from episode thirteen onward. I might follow the manga, or I might take the track of the anime, or HELL since this is my story I just might write it properly and keep Crona from being screwed over by Medusa any longer! Yeah, I think I rather like that idea. Also, I know Crona's gender is ambiguous at the moment, but for all intensive purposes, "it" is a she in this ficlet! So please by all means, enjoy!**

**R&R! =D**


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